MRSA has already made some students sick at Belen High School, and officials admit they probably should have done more to warn parents.

The school's wrestling and weight rooms have been disinfected more than 40 times since last week.

"It's been cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned," said Belen Athletic Coordinator Rodney Wright.

Wright said they'll be cleaned some more after one student reported a confirmed case of MRSA last Tuesday.

MRSA is an antibiotic-resistant staph bacterium that spreads with close contact. Since the first report at Belen, 12 other students have reported that they have at least a staph infection. "As of yesterday morning, we had two more cases that were confirmed," Wright said.

Wright said they sent a letter home to parents of every winter athlete but admitted that they did not send out a note to the entire school.

"Probably, in hindsight, I will tell you that's probably something we could have done district-wide," Wright said.

He said, so far, the outbreak has been limited to wrestlers and cheerleaders who share the same facilities.

After the outbreak, school leaders said they have a big concern that some students aren't taking their clothes home every single day, so they're pleading with students and parents to make sure their clothes are clean before they come back to school.

"Take the precautions just like you would with any type of cold or flu or any other viruses," Wright said.

Belen High School leaders said they've kept their teams out of several recent competitions to minimize the risk of possibly spreading MRSA

The bacteria can enter the body through an open wound and often shows up as a skin infection. In severe cases, it can spread through the bloodstream and affect the lungs, heart, bones and more.